On the NSFE, someone asked if, since July 4 is on a Saturday, if we would have to ship on July 3 (Friday).
A couple of posters responded that July 3 is the OFFICIAL holiday that the USPS is closed, so Amazon would not require us to ship, and of course, Saturday is a non-ship day anyway.
I questioned this, so checked the USPS website; it states that July 4 is a holiday and they are closed, with a footnote that for some employees, Friday will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes.
But if you ask Google, the AI comes up telling you that Friday is the “observed” holiday. So anyone relying on the AI is going to get the wrong info (unless Friday is added as a holiday, something not unusual; but as of now AFAIK has not been added).
ETA: Apparently, if instead of asking Google for “USPS Holiday Schedule”, you instead ask “What day does the mail not run”, the AI summary gives you the correct information.
That reference is those USPS workers who are in distribution centers and have to work. The retail operations and normal postal delivery will get Friday and Saturday off.
When a holiday falls on a Saturday, the preceding Friday is observed as the holiday.
518.22 Sunday
When a holiday falls on Sunday, the following Monday is observed as the holiday.
518.23 Nonscheduled Workday
When an employee’s nonscheduled workday falls on a day observed as a holiday, the employee’s scheduled workday preceding the holiday is designated as that employee’s holiday.
So from the way I read this, people who normally do not work on Saturday will be off on Friday. But people who normally would work on Saturday (such as carriers) have their holiday on Saturday and still work on Friday.
What am I missing?
If a USPS employee works Thursday thru Monday and a holiday falls on Tuesday, the USPS employee would get Monday off with pay as the holiday along with Tuesday and Wednesday off.
So if the USPS employee works Monday thru Friday and a holiday fall on Saturday, the USPS employee would get Friday off with pay as the holiday along with Saturday and Sunday.
USPS is a mess when it comes to the types of help involved. There are union workers, non-union workers, contracted workers, full time, part time, and the list goes on. In our post office, there are two people … a clerk and a route carrier. Both work 6 days a week. The clerk get 35.5 hours total and the route carrier gets 39 hours. Our Post Master is in an office 15 miles away but isn’t there as he is on the other side of the state covering for something else so we have an office manager running this area. There is no way to cover the post offices if only half of the people are off either Friday or Saturday.
In your example, the person would normally work Friday in any other business. But given the parameters that exist in USPS, what happens varies widely depending on the area. In larger cities where the post office is open 8 hours a day 6 days a week, it might happen that way but it won’t in our area. That is one of the reasons why it says “If a holiday falls on a Saturday, for some USPS employees, the preceding Friday will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes.”
On June 19 holiday, our post office will be closed on Friday (the holiday) and Saturday. There will be no mail delivery on Friday but we will have mail delivery on Saturday. So on that week, we can send out orders on Thursday and the following Monday.
Hi @Picks_by_Nisha and @Lost_My_Marbles , this is an important question that still doesn’t have a completely confirmed answer, with or without AI.
So I moved it into its own topic.
We’ll ask the employees at the hub where we ship! Sounds like it may be a local P.O. question. We ship daily at our P.O.-get a counter scan for every order-- except Sundays. Doesn’t matter to me when they’re closed-most who work at our hub are hard-working and deserve an extra day off-- as long as we know before so don’t run labels same-day. .
Our P.O usually have a big sign on the front door prior to holidays.I’d assume no less on the 250th-but assuming pays no toll. We’ll ask-several times!!! .
I would suggest that if you plan on not shipping on July 3 (either because your PO is closed, or you want the day off), that you set the day as a Custom Holiday; as (at least currently), Amazon has the only Holiday as Saturday.
And it’s what Amazon says that is what directly affects our business.
Of course, it would not be unheard of for the president to declare Friday as a holiday, in which case all should be good. But until that happens, don’t count on it.
It does not matter to me whether they are closed or not.
Everything we ship does into a locked USPS pickup box in the lobby, or on the floor in the lobby if we requested a pickup.
Only when a trainee from the USPS Training Center picks up, do we get an immediate scan.
My handling time allows for any and sundry delays in scanning. Were I still selling on Amazon, they would probably force me to list with same day or 1 day shipping.
Not having to worry about when my shipments are scanned has been a tremendous relief.
We plan on doing this but have to decide if we need to make the whole week of 6/29 to 7/3 as a holiday week. Our oldest daughter will be here 6/27 to 7/1 so there is only one day 7/2. Got a week to decide.
For me, USPS’s site allowed me to schedule a pickup on 7/3, and since they have all their other holidays grayed out, I am going to assume that they will be open that day.
We were told at our Hub that many P.O.'s are closed on Sat. True enough, the smaller P.O.only 7 minutes away from us is closed for counter business on Sat. So the Feds are giving those employees the day off on the 3rd. So we will have no mail delivery in our area either 3rd/4th!
For those who usually work on Sat-the hub which is 35 minutes away from our home–their facilities will be closed only on Sat, the 4th. So those who have their mail delivered directly via the Hub( the 'burbs nearby) will have mail delivered on the 3rd but not the 4th.
Gotta love a bureaucracy that can’t give taxpayers a straight answer to a simple question.
So we checked with our post office today … open on the 3rd … off on the 4th (but there is no counter access on Saturdays normally). But she was not sure if there would be mail on the 3rd or the 4th because she didn’t know when the drivers bring / taking the mail would work. So what we get scanned on the Friday the 3rd will probably stay at our post office until Monday the 6th before going to the local distribution center. And … we will get mail on the 2nd and 6th.
We will ask ours again on June 29th because who knows what will come down from their top between now and then.
